Rick and Morty Episode 8: Rixty Minutes

The Smith family starts the episode watching a generic reality dating show on TV when Rick insults the quality of the program and Jerry dares him to do better. Rick responds by destroying the cable box and replacing it with one that can pull in channels from **infinite alternate dimensions**, instantly exposing the family to bizarre and often absurd shows from other realities.

At first, the family is entertained by the sheer weirdness of the interdimensional programming, including strange commercials and bizarre TV concepts from different worlds. Their attention shifts when they see a version of Jerry on television as a successful celebrity in another reality, which fascinates Jerry and irritates Rick because the family starts fixating on that instead of the random channels.

Rick then tosses a pair of **interdimensional goggles** into the kitchen, and Jerry, Beth, and Summer scramble to use them so they can see alternate versions of themselves. Through the goggles, Jerry sees a life in which he is rich and famous, Beth sees a version of herself as a highly successful surgeon, and Summer sees realities where her life turns out very differently.

As they keep looking, Jerry, Beth, and Summer realize that the realities where their lives seem better come with painful tradeoffs, including the suggestion that Summer would not exist in those versions because Beth did not have the pregnancy that led to her birth. Beth and Jerry begin arguing openly, and Beth admits that Summer was an unwanted pregnancy, which upsets Summer badly.

Feeling unwanted, Summer decides to run away, but Morty stops her and tells her that he and Rick are themselves from another dimension, so the idea of an “original” reality is not as meaningful as it seems. He gives her a blunt, nihilistic pep talk that convinces her to stay.

Meanwhile, Jerry and Beth continue watching their alternate selves and discover that those versions of them are unhappy in their own way. Seeing alternate Jerry and Beth reconnect helps push them toward doing the same in their own reality, and they ultimately decide to remain together.

The episode ends with the family on an interdimensional vacation in a bizarre world they saw on TV, where hamsters live inside human rectums.